Nigerian scams
Also sometimes called an 'Advance Fee Fraud' (AFF) letter, and as a “419” after the section of the Nigerian penal law that deals with this type of fraud, the "Nigerian" scam isn't eligible for our Pie In The Sky Award. However, here's some information about these scams.
Have you been contacted by someone from Nigeria asking for your help in transferring money out of the country? If so, then you are one of thousands of people all over the world who have been targeted by what is sometimes called the "Nigerian letter scam" or "Nigerian advance fee fraud".
Although "Nigerian" is the name given to it, this scam is international. The letter or email you get may also pretend to come from another country, such as Sierra Leone, the Congo, the Ivory Coast, South Africa, Mauritius, Philippines or Azerbaijan. In fact, the scam operator may be in the US, or Australia, or anywhere.
Bucket loads of these notorious scams arrive in our mailbox, usually as spam emails. Did you know that about 1,000,000,000 of these get sent worldwide each year?
Never reply. The 'delete' button is your best friend.
Letters have also been sent to people advertising homes for sale on the internet, pretending to be from interested purchasers. The letter goes on to ask, in the usual way, for help transferring money. It's best not to reply, because the reply only encourages them to pester you.
How the scam works
The scam varies, but usually you will receive a letter, or more often, a fax or email offering you a business "proposal" or transaction. The person writing may claim they are a government official, the widow of a government official, or from a charity or business group. In all cases, they promise you a benefit or reward in return for your help in offloading some cash or other commodity.
To ensure a "hitch free transfer" of your share of the windfall, they will often ask for your bank account details. This is only the beginning. Once you're hooked, you'll be asked to pay all sorts of "advance fees" (eg customs, taxes, bribes) to facilitate the transfer. These fees are the real purpose of the scam, and may add up to tens of thousands of dollars. Over US $5 billion from gullible victims has been lost to scamsters.
What can ASIC do?
This scam falls outside ASIC's responsibilities, so we can't take action ourselves apart from warning you about it. Because the scam crosses many national boundaries, even the responsible government agencies are limited in what they can do.
The best way to stop this fraud is to reduce the pool of potential victims. Many agencies have issued warnings including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Visit other websites to read warnings from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the United States Secret Service. The United States Department of State has a special pamphlet on its website about the perils of this scam, that makes extraordinary reading (PDF download).
What can you do?
- Never give your bank account number or other personal details to unauthorised people.
- If you have got caught yourself, or if you come across any evidence of Australian involvement in this scam, contact your state or territory police.
- Report Nigerian and related scams on the Scamwatch website.
- Make sure you are smarter than the scamsters. Read this report published by the Australian Institute of Criminology - it gives you background to the scam and how it operates, as well as some chilling facts about what has happened to previous victims. If this report doesn't warn you off, nothing will!
- For more information, contact your State department of consumer affairs or fair trading.
More information about
Read FIDO's other warnings and stories of financial scams
FIDO Website: Printed 11/20/2008
